In a world of seven billion people, give or take, you would think the odds of encountering certain, specific individuals, outside of your general circle of community, would be quite low, but that hasn’t been my experience. Call it kismet or serendipity, or just dumb luck, but I’ve always had a consistent tendency to cross paths with celebrities in unexpected places. It started when I was around ten years old and left a WWF event with my dad in Nashville. Sitting at the red light a few blocks from the arena, I looked to my left and saw George “The Animal” Steele sitting behind the wheel of an old Mercedes diesel. Just a few hours earlier I sat in half terrified amazement as he tore apart the turnbuckle with his teeth and now we sat a few feet apart, separated only by a couple of pieces of glass. He must have felt the piercing glare of my preteen stare because all at once he turned his face toward me, opened his mouth wide like a gorilla and stuck out his green tongue before driving off. I was at once thrilled and confounded by the fact that this hairy madman in the ring was just a regular person sitting in traffic.
My next brush with celebrity would come at age sixteen. My dad and I were at Legion Field in Birmingham for the Third Saturday In October battle between Alabama and Tennessee. My dad is a lifelong Vols fan but I rolled with the Tide since the day I watched Alabama quarterback Gary Hollingsworth orchestrate a historic comeback against Ole Miss. A friend of my father’s asked me how I became the black sheep of the family so I explained to him the story of how I became a fan of Gary Hollingsworth that day and continued to follow his career, becoming an Alabama fan in the process. A huge, Cheshire Cat style grin crept across his face before he laughed and pointed just over my shoulder and said, “That’s Gary Hollingsworth right behind you.” I turned to see my childhood hero standing right behind me. The man introduced us, demanded that I retell the story to my idol, who in turn introduced me to former Alabama fullback, and current (at the time) Philadelphia Eagle, Kevin Turner. Four years earlier I was watching these guys on my television and now I was eating ribs with them in a parking lot.
A third encounter with the stars happened when I was in my early twenties. My wife and I, along with our two little boys, were doing some late night shopping at Target in Franklin, Tennessee. Our sons were ten feet away, dancing to calypso music playing from an end cap display, when we noticed a lady in a camouflage jacket talking with them. Our mama and papa bear instincts kicked in as we rushed over to investigate this mysterious woman. I arrived next to them just as she stood up and met me eye to eye. One look at her flaming red hair, along with her gold, oversized Elvis style sunglasses, and the only thing I could say was, “You’re Wynona Judd.” To which she assertively replied, “Yes I am sugar!” It was ten o’clock at night and I was standing face to face with a country music legend.
In the next two decades I would meet nearly two dozen celebrities from athletes, to musicians, to actors, to politicians. Rather than telling all the long stories I will break them down into locations. In airports or actually on planes I have encountered the Robertsons from Duck Dynasty fame, NBA world champion Norris Cole, and I actually sat next to former New York Governor Elliott Spitzer, while he was still a District Attorney. An uncanny number of these encounters have occurred in New Orleans. I met two-time Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon outside Goorin Brothers hats in the French Quarter, “Stiffler’s mom” Jennifer Coolidge at the Whole Foods on Magazine Street, Dean Norris of Breaking Bad fame in front of Juan’s Flying Burrito, actor Douglas Smith at the traffic light near La Pavillon Hotel, and former Saints running back C.J. Spiller in the frozen foods aisle of Sam’s. Speaking of football players, I’ve met several of them, and other athletes as well. The most recent was NBA player Donta Hall in a Mexican restaurant in his hometown of Luverne, Alabama, where my son also lives. Long before this encounter there was quarterback Blaine Gabbert and his entire Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line at a Ruth’s Chris in Nashville during Christmas, Tim Tebow and the entire Denver Broncos football team outside a Nashville hotel, and two time Pro Bowler and three time Super Bowl champion Dont’a Hightower at a high school football game. Once at a Shell station in Franklin, Tennessee NASCAR legend Darrel Waltrip pulled up beside me to pump gas, and while waiting to cross the street in Ybor City Jerry Springer stepped out of a limousine next to me. There have also been a number of musicians on the list. While waiting for my computer at a Mac Authority in the Cool Springs mall I met country music singer Troy Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry and singer Josh Turner at the same time, and while hanging out at Seaside Beach with my family, shock rocker Alice Cooper and his wife sat down next to us.
Up to this point, all of the encounters have taken place somewhere other than where I’ve lived, but our move to the Shoals last March was made with a small amount of optimism that we could brush up against the many musical legends who call this area home. As many have said before me, there is something in the water around here that seems to summon musical inspiration from some other realm. Grammy awards, platinum records, and Hall of Fame inductees fill the air around here the way smog does in L.A. and the smell of gourmet cooking saturates the air in New Orleans. Within a month of moving here I sat next to a four time Grammy winner while picking up take out and then ran into him again while buying potting soil at Lowe’s a month after that. A few weeks later I was offered a buggy at the Foodland grocery store in Center Star, Alabama by Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame inductee Spooner Oldham. He wrote songs recorded by Janis Joplin, The Supremes, Hank Williams, Jr., Steve Wariner, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Costello, Cher, and Elton John. He also played piano on records by Aretha Franklin and Neil Young, and the iconic organ intro to the number one hit “When A Man Loves A Woman” by Percy Sledge. Center Star, Alabama has exactly one traffic light, not exactly Nashville or Hollywood, and yet this is where musical legends buy groceries.
In a life filled with these “right time, right place” moments, the one I experienced Valentine’s weekend went to an entirely different level. Having spent the morning at a coffee shop with my wife, my son and his wife, we decided to walk to a nearby Thai restaurant for sushi. Next door to the coffee shop is the Shoals Theater, where Single Lock Records was producing a livestream only concert featuring Erin Rae, two time Grammy nominee Cedric Burnside, and John Paul White, formerly of the multi-platinum, Grammy winning duo The Civil Wars. Single Lock Records has helped launch the careers of acts like St. Paul and the Broken Bones and Grammy winners, The Alabama Shakes. We walked out of the coffee shop at the same time Erin Rae was walking out of the Shoals Theater. Although we’d never met previously, Erin and my wife share a family connection, so we introduced ourselves, chatted for a few minutes, took a couple of pictures, and then went on to lunch. While eating lunch we got a text from our mutual family member telling us to get back to the theater because we’d been invited to sit backstage for the performance. The theater was empty, except for the musicians, the film crew, and a handful of Single Lock staff. A normal, cold, winters day was magically transformed into a private, intimate concert by these amazing musicians. I came to this area hoping to have a chance encounter or two with some of my musical heroes and instead I found myself hanging out with them. Even better than the show and the magic of the night, was the tremendous kindness and welcoming attitude by every involved. We were intruders in their sacred space, strangers to everyone in the room, but we were welcomed like we belonged and treated like we were meant to be there. Maybe we were. What are the odds? Pretty good apparently.
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